1950’s PASHLEY Grocer’s Delivery Box-Trike

This Pashley 3-wheeler was used for a grocery shop’s local deliveries.

I bought it some years ago from a museum that had run out of space. It’s in good working order, though I’ve not ridden it for a long time.

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Pashley History

Pashley Cycles is the longest established bicycle manufacturer in Great Britain [ie that is still inoperation]. Based in Stratford-upon-Avon, the company has been making bicycles for over 80 years.

Pashley Cycles was formed by William ‘Rath’ Pashley in 1926. He’d ridden as a despatch rider in the First World War and gained engineering experience as an apprentice with Austin Motors.

Initially the small company called Pashley and Barber (his wife’s maiden name) manufactured all manner of bikes, but it was in carrier cycles that Pashley made their name.

The first premises were set up in Digbeth in Birmingham, but due to increasing demand larger premises were acquired in Aston. In 1936 the business, then known as Pashley Carrier Cycles, was incorporated as a limited company and became WR Pashley Ltd.

Originally almost every component was made in-house. Only the tubing and lugs were bought in. This allowed constant product development and a very high level of quality control.

After the depression, Pashley supplied the Wall’s ice cream Stop Me and Buy One tricycles, with two wheels at the front and one at the back. Other businesses began to take advantage of Pashley’s carrier cycles. Two-wheeled load carriers like the small front wheeled ‘Deli Bike’ became favourites with butchers, milkmen and vintners amongst others.